SELMA — The town’s sewer and water system is clogged with problems, Selma leaders heard last week. A consultant hired by the town ticked off the “good, bad and ugly” at a council meeting, listing everything from backed-up pipes to sensors that were never hooked up.

“I don’t have a dog in this fight,” consultant Don Register said as he started down his laundry list.

One well had no protective enclosure, while the roof of another was too dangerous for staff to climb on for repairs, Register told the council. Exposed electrical wiring hangs off the back of another well.

The electrical system at the town’s water-treatment plant was configured so that the backup generator might be unable to restart one of its older pumps after a power failure, but Register said town employees are already on the problem.

At another site, Register said, a fence was close enough to an opening in the system that miscreants could throw in junk, or worse.

'“We live in a world of some evil people,” he added.

An aging sludge remover at that plant needs replacing, which would cost $80,000.

Register also looked at the system’s staffing needs. Five employees manage 19 pump stations and 30 miles of sewer lines, he said.

Telemetry gear at nine of the stations is meant to reduce the workload by dialing employees when it detects abnormal pressure or sewage levels. But seven of the auto-dialers aren’t connected to a phone line and sit useless, Register said.

“It might be running over right now and you wouldn’t know,” he told the council.

Register said the town should have phone gear at all 19 pump stations. Instead of running phone lines, he suggested the town outfit the stations with cell phone technology. The upgrades would cost $2,000 per station, along with a $30 phone bill for each station every month.

“It’s not cheap, but it helps you sleep better at night,” he said.

One of the town’s wells has sat dormant since an upgrade two years ago, because it needed too much chlorine to clean. Register said the well could possibly be put back in service within a week, after the town “super-chlorinates” it.

Richard Moore, a consultant from McDavid Associates, gave the council some more sewer woes.

Thanks to missing manhole covers, ancient clay pipes and degrading walls in manhole shafts, water is able to seep into the town’s sewer system. Selma pays the county to treat its sewage, and the extra water almost doubles that volume, Moore said.

One manhole had its cover completely broken.

“Someone could have fallen into this thing,” Moore said.

Several pipes in the system have severe grease buildup, likely a result of someone dumping grease into the system instead of using a trap.

Moore also conducted a GPS survey of the system, mapping it out and overlaying it onto satellite imagery. The new information system will allow town staff to better store inspection logs and photos. The maps might even help them find the grease-dumping culprits by tracing the sewer lines around the blockages.

Mayor Charles Hester had heard enough by the end of Register’s presentation. “I’ve heard this story many times,” he said. “We need somebody to fix it.”

If the town can’t get its water matters in order, he said, it should buy water from Smithfield instead.

Town Manager Richard Douglas said the town had already started working, doing what it could on the cheap and putting out grant applications for big-ticket items. Other improvements will be put up for next year’s budget, he said.

“It’s a problem that didn’t happen overnight, and it won’t be fixed overnight,” he said.

In the meantime, the town is looking for a new water and sewer director to fill the vacant position.